Surviving, Not Living/Issue 28
This is Issue 28 of Surviving, Not Living, entitled The Earth's Most Valuable Resource. This is the fourth issue of Volume 5. Issue 28 - The Earth's Most Valuable Resource Jackie sprinted through the halls of the infected-ridden school. Somehow, she had found herself in the off-limits block that was full of infected. The blonde wore a baggy, camouflage jacket over the top of a plain, white shirt. Her jeans had been ripped by nails and blood poured out from her skin. She held a pistol in her right hand. On top of the pistol, a flashlight had been strapped. Outside, the sun had began to set, casting an orange glow across everything in the corridor. Jackie stopped quickly and leant over, trying to catch her breath. The forthcoming groaned in her ear. She started to run again - forever hearing them, but never seeing them. The blonde quickly ran into the room to her right, slamming the door shut behind her. Jackie sighed and slid down the door. Catching up with her, the infected clawed on the door. Finally managing to relax, the woman exhaled deeply. She rested her head on the door and closed her eyes, taking two deep breaths. She let her gun fall to the side. Jackie snapped her eyes back open when she heard groaning coming from inside the room. Reacting quickly, she grabbed her pistol from the floor and turned the torch on. She used the torch to scan the room, starting at the left. When she was only half done, the torch began to flicker. It flashed on-and-off as the groans got louder. Jackie brought her hand up and sent it crashing down on the torch. After repeating this action twice more, the light clearly shone. Part of Jackie wished that she hadn't had got the torch working. Infront of her, Doug stood. His face was a grotesque mess, yet she still knew that it was him. One of his eyeballs hung low and a huge chunk of his head was missing. As he stumbled forwards, he tripped over his exposed intestines and fell to the floor. Panicking, Jackie turned around and pulled the door open. She quickly shut it again, remembering the mass number of infected that had been following her. By this time, the infected version of Doug was already on his feet. "I-I can't." She sobbed. Jackie broke down - her feet went to jelly and she fell to the floor. The infected Doug leapt forwards and closed his teeth around her neck. ______________________________________________________________________________ Screaming, Jackie broke out of her slumber. Sweat drenched the top that she had slept in. Bobby bursted into the room, followed closely by Vicky. "Are you okay?" He asked, genuinely worried. "Yeah... yeah." She panted. "Just a bad dream." Vicky sighed loudly, expressing her disgust at being awoke. Without hesitation, she stormed back to her bedroom. The sun had already risen across Georgia, pushing light through the cracks in the curtains. Bobby walked over, pushing them back and letting light fill the room. Quickly, Jackie got up from the bed and pulled on some khaki trousers. She didn't want Bobby to see her in just her underwear and a t-shirt. He didn't turn around, respecting Jackie's privacy. "I'm decent." She quietly declared. Bobby turned to face her. He sat on the bed, next to her, before speaking. "What was it about? If you don't mind me asking..." "It was Doug, Bobby. They're always about Doug." Jackie sighed. "I was in the other school block. There were infected everywhere and I was alone. I escaped into one of the class rooms but... Doug was there. He was infected..." Wrapping his arms around her, Bobby tried to comfort Jackie. She tried to suppress her sobs but they returned. For a while, she cried in Bobby's arms. Jackie finally stopped crying when her throat ran dry. Bobby loosened his arms as she pulled away and stood up. "I'm going to get some water." She told him, heading towards the door. "Do you want me to come with you?" Bobby called after her. "No, I'll be fine." Jackie assured. ______________________________________________________________________________ A few minutes later, Jackie stood in the dining hall. She used a hand pump to draw the water from the source to the tap. She placed a red plastic cup underneath the spout and twisted the nozzle. Unexpectedly, nothing came out of the tap until, a few seconds later, a gooey red liquid gushed out. Jackie quickly turned the tap off. "Hey Jackie." Zach limped into the room. He coughed hard before collapsing into one of the chairs. "I don't feel too good. Can you get me a cup of water, please?" "I wish I could." Jackie said, scrunching her face up in confusion. "There's no water... I-I think it's blood." "What's going on?" Charlotte asked, entering the room. "Go and get Amelia." The blonde ordered. "This is going to be a problem." ______________________________________________________________________________ Amelia, Bobby and Charlotte followed the pipe that connected to the tap in the hall to a freshwater stream. The system had already been set up and running when the group had arrived, much to their surprise. The river was no longer full of water, the liquid had been replaced with thick blood. However, there was no sign of what had caused the blood to fill the stream. "There must be an infected upstream somewhere." Bobby told them. The trio walked in silence for a while, before Charlotte spoke up. "I've been thinking... There must've been people here, not long before we arrived." "Go on..." Amelia said, interested. "Well, there were two bottles of fresh water, just lying on the table, when we first arrived." Charlotte began. "If it'd been in them bottles for more than a week, it would've gone stale. Also, the other two blocks of school classrooms were already boarded up. If the cardboard that they had used to reinforce the doors had been there for a long time, it would've split and infected would have burst through." "You're right." Bobby agreed. "With everything that's been going on, Doug, Jack 'n' all, I haven't even thought about it." "And, this system of transporting the water to the main building. No-one here is clever enough to even start to construct something like this." She finished. "It just makes you wonder, where have the people that used to li-" "Be quiet!" Amelia interrupted, hushing them. "Look..." Along the stream, a horse laid. There was a huge split in his stomach and two infected were feasting on it's guts. The three slowly crouched and hid behind a bunch of foliage. "We're not using the gun, okay?" Amelia instructed. Bobby smiled. He secretly liked the fact that his sister had been taking on the role of the group leader - and not just because that meant less work for him. "Agreed. Let's go." Charlotte nodded. Bobby was the first one to rise to his feet. Slowly, he crept towards one of the walkers. He froze when a fallen branch snapped underneath his boot. The infected paused and it’s ears perked up, as if it was listening out for something. Bobby sighed when it went back to eating the horse. Again, he crept closer and closer until… “To your left!” Charlotte shouted. Bobby had been so focused on creeping up to the infected, that he hadn’t realised that another was limping out of the foliage. The infected jumped onto Bobby and pushed him to the ground. He landed with a thud as the undead collapses on top of him. Quickly, the man grabbed hold of its shoulders and flipped it over. Bobby was now on top of it. Leaning to the side, he grabbed a rock – about the size of his palm. However, the other two infected had heard the commotion and decided to ditch the horse for the taste of fresh meat. Although, Charlotte and Amelia weren’t having that. The two girls jumped into action. Amelia took down the first infected, swinging her arm around and slamming the end of a screwdriver into her skull. The infected that Bobby straddled was putting up a fight. He had slammed the skull into its forehead over and over again but it just wouldn’t die. Charlotte had no time to help him as he infected was getting dangerously close. She thought about all the different ways she could take it down – take out it’s knee and smash it’s head in with her foot, grab Amelia’s screwdriver and use that, or knock it down with the muzzle of her gun. Her thoughts had distracted her and allowed the infected to get dangerously close. Charlotte quickly decided on her means of attack. She raised her hands and slammed the muzzle of her gun into the side of it’s head. It flew to the side and fell to the floor. The brunette picked up her foot and slammed it into the infected’s decaying skull. It collapsed with very little pressure, spilling pink pieces of brain everywhere. “That was a bit of an adrenaline rush.” Bobby sarcastically said, climbing from the now-dead-again infected. Charlotte looked at him, giving him her I-am-not-amused face. “Come on, lighten up!” “Let’s just move this thing and get back to the school.” Charlotte insisted. The three crowded around the deceased horse. It had been dead for a while. It’s skin was a pale brown colour and it’s eyelids had not been closed. Amelia grabbed the horse’s neck and the other two lifted up the animal’s legs. Unfortunately, Amelia pulled too fast and the horse’s stomach split open further. The rest of it’s insides joined the others on the floor. “That’s gross.” She complained. “I’m turning vegetarian.” “It’s not like our diet is only fruit and vegetables, anyway.” Charlotte snapped. “Oh, shut up, Charlotte.” Amelia retaliated. “Winter’s coming hard and fast. Soon, we won’t even have fruit and vegetables to eat.” Charlotte looked away and continued to lift the horse. When she knew that Charlotte wasn’t looking, Amelia put up her middle finger. Bobby shook his head and smirked. ______________________________________________________________________________ “It’s still not working.” In the kitchen, Jackie whined. She placed a cup underneath the spout and turned the tap on. Like before, nothing came from the tap until a clump of bloody god-knows-what fell out. “Well, it can’t be a blockage in the pipe. I’ve checked every inch of it at least three times.” Bobby told her. Zach stumbled into the kitchen, assisted by Ellie, clutching his stomach and coughing. Charlotte grabbed Ava out of her seat. “Stay away from him, Ava. We don’t want you catching that nasty stuff.” She told the young girl. “Doug would know what to do…” Jackie sighed, walking into the room. “Well, Doug is dead, isn’t he?” Amelia snapped. Zach coughed again, squirming in pain. “Woah, someone’s a bit agitated.” Bobby calmed. “I guess it’s hard when you’re on your period during an apocalypse.” Amelia face screwed up and she clenched her fists. “For god sake, can’t a girl be a little on edge and not be accused of being on her fucking period?” “Someone should just put him out of his misery.” Charlotte murmured, looking towards Zach. “What was that, bitch?” Ellie strutted over to Charlotte. “You’ve never liked me or my husband, have you?” “Not really.” Charlotte admitted. “Well, if you remember correctly, he’s the reason that we all escaped from Dallas’ group.” The blonde spat. “We could have easily left you behind – sometimes I wish we would have.” “Calm down, Mills.” Bobby spoke. “It was just a joke.” “Don’t patronise me with that ‘Mills’ shit, Bobby!” Amelia demanded. Slowly, the two arguments began to get more heated and the volume gradually rose. Danny stormed in and slammed the door behind him. The loud noise echoed around the room and caught everyone’s attention. “I’m on watch tonight and I’m trying to get some sleep!” He exclaimed. “You guys need to learn to be more considerate.” “We’re sorry, Danny. Just go back to sleep.” Bobby apologized. Danny sighed before turning around and heading back to one of the dorm rooms. Bobby turned back to Amelia. “I still don’t trust him to be on watch by himself. He’s still not over his dad’s death… I just don’t want him to do anything stupid – we need him.” “You better sleep with one eye open tonight, bitch.” Ellie threatened. Charlotte clenched her teeth and leaned forwards to pull Ellie’s hair. Amelia ran over and got between the two other women. “Charlotte.” She said. “I think you should take Ava to bed.” Charlotte scoffed as she took Ava’s hand and walked out of the room. “In this group, we don’t threaten people.” Amelia told Ellie. “I-I know, I’m sorry.” She sighed. Suddenly, Zach burst out into a fit of coughs. He leant forwards over the table – one hands covering his mouth and the other holding his stomach. “Listen,” Ellie began to speak again. “I think I can make Zach healthy again. We just need to take a risk.” Ellie reached into her back pocket and pulled out a map. She unfolded the paper and spread it across the large dining room table. Amelia and Bobby peered over her shoulder. There were two places that had been circled in red marker pen – ‘St. Margaret’s School’ and ‘Central State Library.’ The two were situated a fair distance apart. “We need to go there.” Ellie said, placing her finger on the library. “There?!” Bobby exclaimed. “It’ll take at least forty five minutes to drive there. We don’t even know if the truck has enough fuel to even make it there.” “Just think about it for a while, please.” She replied. “It’s a library. There’ll shelves and shelves of books about medicines. We must be able to find at least one book that tells us how to make medicine out of different herbs that we could grow. Please… Whatever illness Zach has got… It’s not gonna go by itself.” “You don’t know that, Ellie.” Amelia told her. “We’ve never been on these roads before. We don’t know how dangerous they are! We could get there and all of the books could be absolutely ruined. I’m not willing to waste fuel on something that might ''benefit ''one ''member of the group.” “He fucking saved your asses!” Ellie exploded. “Without him, you’d have been tortured, raped and even killed! What awful people won’t return the favor and help him out? I’m going to the library whether you let me or not. Who decided that you two are the leaders of this group, anyway?” Bobby took a deep breath in order to keep calm. “You’re not going to the library and that’s ''that.” He and Amelia turned around and began to walk back into the kitchen. “This can be good for all of us!” Ellie called after them. “We could bring back children’s books for Ava. She’d actually have something to do for once!” The sibling duo shut the kitchen door as they left, leaving Ellie alone with Zach. Sighing, she sat down next to her husband. Her look of sadness soon turned to a look of determination. Ellie smirked, running one of her hands through Zach’s black hair. ______________________________________________________________________________ That night, Bobby laid awake, tossing and turning in his bed next to Vicky. He felt extremely bad and wondered if he and Amelia were too harsh on Ellie. He sighed loudly, starting to get annoyed by the fact that he wasn’t asleep yet. “What’s wrong?” Vicky groaned, turning over to face him. Her voice made Bobby jump – he expected her to be asleep by that time. “You’re keeping me awake so we might as well talk about it.” “Sorry,” He half-laughed. “It’s just… I feel so bad about what me and Amelia told Ellie.” Vicky propped her head up next to him. “What did you tell her?” “She wanted to go to a library nearby- well, I say nearby but it’d take at least three quarters of an hour to get there. She said that there would be books on medicines for Zach that we can make, using the herbs that are growing in the gardens.” Bobby sighed. “Obviously, I shot her down straight away – said that we couldn’t waste the fuel – but, if it Ava or even you had fallen ill, I wouldn’t hesitate to go to the library.” Thinking before speaking, Vicky replied after a few seconds. “But, I’m not the one that’s ill and neither is Ava. We barely know Zach. You know that I’m not too fond of Charlotte but she does speak some truth – he could have been sent to infiltrate our group and gain our trust by Dallas, only to betray us later. Anyway, I think you made the right decision.” “I ju-” “Don’t.” She interrupted Bobby, pressing a finger to his lips. Soon, the brunette replaced her finger with her lips. Their tongues entwined in an abundance of passion and lust. “Just go to sleep. You've move your decision - what's done is done. Now, go to sleep." He sighed, frustrated with her abruptness. ______________________________________________________________________________ Mere hours later, the sun hadn’t even fully risen and Ellie was already ready for the day. Standing in her dorm room, she pushed her hair back with one hand and pulled the hair tie from her wrist and onto her hair. Ellie was dressed head-to-toe in tight fitting clothes and had a pistol strapped into her belt. If the day went according to plan, both of these things would act in her favor. Amelia and Bobby were both being unfair. If Daniel was in the same position as Zach, they’d want to go to the library. Wouldn’t they? She kept telling herself that they would. Zach still slept beside her, skin as white as a sheet of paper. Ellie turned to watch him for a second. Despite having beads of sweat on his forehead, a shiver surged through his body. His once gorgeous locks of black hair had been left as a curly mess. ______________________________________________________________________________ Ellie trudged along the snow-covered streets of what must have been Georgia. Or, She hoped it was Georgia, at least. It could have been South Carolina or any of the other states that connected to Georgia. No-one really know what was where anymore. Although, they didn’t really need to. There was no going down to Florida to visit Gran and there hadn’t been for a very long time. Except, today, Ellie’s map and orienteering skills had to be right. She needed to be going the right way. Whatever sickness Zach had, it wasn’t going away by itself. It was powerful… and god knows where he caught it from. The thought that it could’ve been an improved version of the plague – the one that caused the apocalypse - slipped into Ellie’s mind. She quickly pushed it to the back of her head. A few steps ahead of her, the snow began to clear. She sighed loudly and moved across to the clear road. Finally, a surface that her boots could grip on to. Not wondering why the snow hadn’t fell in this area, Ellie didn’t look up until her hip smacked against the side of her car. Grabbing her hip and swearing through gritted teeth, she looked up. There were huge mountains of cars on each side of the road. There were smashed windows and bumpers were people had frantically tried to enter or leave the city. At least fifty cars stood on each side. Many were typical civilian cars but there were a few police cars dotted around and one military vehicle. Infected were frozen to the seats of most cars. Others’ feet were frozen to the floor as they clawed towards the blonde, not able to move. Ellie walked towards the closest car. She leant over and wiped the frost away from the window. Peering through the smear, she noticed an infected inside. It’s jaw wildly snapped open and shut while it’s arms reached forwards, restrict only by the seat belt. The infected wasn’t what interested Ellie, the coat was. It looked like it was padded and would definitely aid her in the harsh winter. After looking around, Ellie leant over and picked up a brick. She tossed it up and down, getting a feel for it’s weight. With a determined look in her eyes, she swung the car door open and, as hard as she possible could, sent the brick crashing down onto the being’s head. It only took three hits for the infected to go limp. More of a struggle that she originally assumed it was going to be, Ellie eventually grabbed a hold of the coat. The woman had stayed in the same place for too long. As soon as Ellie turned around, she realized so. A few of the infected had tugged so hard that their icy shackles had shattered. Staying calm, the blonde weighed up the possibilities. There were five infected walking and one stuck to the floor close by. She could take them all on, right? Maybe not. Ellie came to the conclusion that it would be easier to run away. With a flick of blonde hair, she span around and began to sprint off. Unfortunately, her third stride caused her boot to come into contact with a patch of ice. It failed to grip and sent her crashing to the floor, face-first. As she fell, the gun dropped out from it's place on her belt and slid away - out of sight. She placed both hands on the floor to push herself back up but failed. The ice patch spread too far across. The mobile infected drew closer as another frozen to the floor snapped its jaw beside her. Ellie struggled and struggled, trying to find different ways to get up or at least scoot away. It was no use. She was helpless. Navigation Category:Surviving, Not Living Category:Surviving, Not Living Issues Category:Issues